A little blog about life, family, food, and living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

“Don’t Bug Me I’m Eating” Chicken Wings

I need a moment.Something strange just occurred under my roof.There are clean plates ready to be loaded into the dishwasher.While that’s happened before, tonight’s dinner consisted of food not sampled before. Food that would require them to *gasp* use their fingers.Food that I almost didn’t prepare because I figured those picky peeps of mine would poke at it much like one would push aside a deceased bug.Who would have guessed that my little clucks would devour these wings? What mischief is this that they set their teeth upon said wings with calculating efficiency?My Picky Eaters Club Charter Members tried something new and (shhhh) liked it!Oh lordy, I feel faint.

These wings are really easy to make.I found the recipe on Rasa Malaysia. I altered the recipe and cooking method slightly.These are mild wings and would make a great alternative to serve to guests who don’t dig hot wings.They have a unique flavor.The honey provides a very faint sweetness, the turmeric provides the lovely color, and the soy sauce provides that yummy background.The ginger juice, although quite pungent, does not overpower the other flavors, and the chili powder I used was mild and just faintly made a taste appearance. That’s it in so far as seasonings.No garlic or onion here (except for what's in the chili powder).I actually missed those flavors; however, I think that the absence of them is what appealed to my kids.When I asked my oldest girl peep if she liked the chicken, she wiggled her eye brows, pulled her mouth away from the wing, and with a smile andjovial tone responded, “don’t bug me, I’m eating!”.All the kids said that this goes on 'the repeat list'. My boy peep told me that I could challenge Bobby Flay to a throwdown with these.Oh yeah, there’s a thought … me and Bobby.Alrighty-O.

Prepare the ginger by peeling it and pounding with a mortar and pestle or grinding with small food processor (I used the processor).Extract the juice by squeezing with your hand and discard the ginger pulp. I wrapped the ground pulp in cheese cloth first. Sssqqquuueeezzzeee! (Man, I really need some sun.)

I prepped the wings simply by cutting off the little flappy thing.What is that thing called?I think next time, I’ll take the extra five minutes to separate the wings into drumette type pieces.For hubby man, I’ll prepare boneless breast pieces.He needed LOTS of wings. He's a big guy. He likes big food. He doesn't like to have bones of any kind on his plate. *sigh* You won't hear him complain though. That fact alone propels me to next time make him food without bones. That and the fact that he ate all the green beans on his plate to set an example for his kids. Well done, my man. And yes, each sprout ate the solitary green bean I placed on their plates. Back to the wings ...

Now you see the flappy thing.

In comes the kitchen shears. Do you love your kitchen shears? I love my shears.

No more flappy thing.

Marinate the chicken wings with the ginger juice and all the seasonings above for 1 – 2 hours (I did 2.5 hours).Grill or bake them in an oven (at 375 degrees F) for 20-25 minutes until cooked or golden brown.Note: I added 2 Tablespoons of oil to the marinade. I also baked mine on two sheet pans, and switched pan positions 1/2 way through. Here are the flapless wings heading into the oven.

After baking, I transferred them to a hot grill for just a couple minutes, fattier side down, to get a crispier, more flame charred surface. See the lovely color ... that's the turmeric.

In Malaysia, roasted chicken wings on a spit are often found on the pavement outside a chinese fry-up joint. The smells, oh! You did a great job. A vinegary chile sauce usually completes the whole Malaysian experience :)

The flavors sounds perfect and the color in the picture makes you want to grab them right out of the screen. Bobby Flay won't stand a chance against you! I think I could actually get my kids to eat these as well. If they don't them more for mommy and daddy!

Hi Marjie: With their picky habits, I've often wondered if they are little aliens!

Kiwi: Let me know if you make it! It is really mild, so keep that in mind if you like more zip in your wings!

Ning: I did lick my fingers! Love the Asian flair in this one!

Peter: The color was glorious. Are there any Greek wing recipes? Have a great trip!

Katherine: Let me know if you try them. I'm a big wing fan, myself!

Lo: We usually have wings as part of a buffet style get together. My kids really liked this, so we'll be eating it more often.

Dee: Oooh, I'd love to know more about that sauce. I bet it would go great with these!

Deborah: Yeh, my daughter is a card! I was just so shocked to see her devouring her food! The wings are tasty ... more mild that I would have guessed.

Meadowlark: These are great for folks that don't like heat in their food. Regarding the allergy, just make certain that your chili powder doesn't have onion in it. I think I may try this next time with a pure ground chili powder vs. a commerical style blend.

Pam: I hope your hubby likes these. They made the whole house smell great when they were baking!

Darlene: They were a great taste combo. I'm still surprised at how mild they were even after all that ginger juice.

Cheryl: These were really good. Also, it was nice to have the oven on with the colder outside temps. Although it was nice to see the sun today!

Aggie: Thanks for the tag! Hmmm ... I'll have to think about my music!

Pam: I use my shears for just about every meal! Have a great first day back at school!

Jeena: They were indeed sticky! That's another good thing about these is that the marinade really stuck to the chicken!

Neen: I love it when they eat vs. just sliding stuff around on their plate!

Bridgett: Ha! I made 4.5 lbs of wings, and there was NONE left. I couldn't believe it. I don't know how many each kid took, but their plates were piled high with bones!

Kevin: They were tasty, and the aroma was terrific! I'd like to try some sort of garam masala seasoned wings sometime!

Recipegirl: I loved using my shears to trim the chicken wings. So much easier than a cleaver!

About Me

Movies that will change your life!

Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Beforeby Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Booksby Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbookby Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.